Reps. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) and John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) have been meeting with 30 House Republicans over the past few weeks to coordinate a more aggressive strategy to defend Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), according to a Republican source familiar with the meetings.

We signed on to this letter (PDF) to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging that they initiate an ethics inquiry into the stories from this past week involving travel expenses paid for by registered lobbyists and registered foreign agents.

Also making today's wire story (read down) was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calling for an ethics investigation of DeLay for accepting travel paid for by a lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. (There's that name again.)